According to a new survey of local authorities, UK councils are preparing to sell social clubs, athletic facilities, and shopping arcades as they rely on a fire sale of assets to balance the books.
Growing Financial Challenges Drive Asset Sales
The Key Cities Group for second-tier cities in the UK reported that 60% of local authorities are intending to dispose of properties to cover the rising costs of social services for vulnerable individuals.
Councils have in the past faced criticism for selling playing fields and open spaces to shore up their finances, but they contend they must proceed to generate essential revenue from property disposals or face insolvency.
This coalition noted that a high proportion of authorities attempting to raise money from a fire sale of assets marked “a distinct shift from 2024, when the largest share (60%) of local leaders said they would focus on service redesigns and using financial reserves to weather growing fiscal pressures.”
Detailed Examples of Planned Sales
Medway Council in southeast England said its property management strategy included the disposal of a retail complex in a local town and a social club in another town to raise £20m over the next half-decade.
- Gillingham golf club and business parks held in Worcestershire and Suffolk, which all generate rent for the authority, will also be sold under the strategy.
Local Levy Rises and Broader Financial Pressures
The survey of local authorities in the key cities group, which includes Sunderland, Southampton, Gloucester and Salford, further found that over seven in ten of authorities will have to increase council taxes next April to cover the growing cost of core provisions, higher levels of homelessness, and a longstanding accommodation deficit.
The authority explained it will proceed with property disposals after sharp increases in the cost of children services, support for vulnerable learners, adult social care, and short-term housing.
“We are taking innovative approaches but certain measures take time to achieve both improved services and cost efficiency,” said a council leader.
He continued: “There are demographic pressures which will continue to increase the pressures we have. As a unitary authority, we had a 91% cut in our central funding from 2010-24, which is extremely difficult.”
National Trends and Projections
A survey of county councils recently also found local finances being stretched by the increasing figures of young people and adults requiring special educational assistance.
The County Councils Network projected that council deficits will hit 4.4 billion pounds a year by the end of the decade, as they grapple to cope with increased demand.
Government officials have put off scheduled changes to the Send system until the coming year after a policy document outlining those changes was recently delayed.
Disadvantage and Financial Gaps
Based on the most recent indices of deprivation (IMD) for English councils, several participating urban areas were among the most deprived in the country.
- “Participating urban centers like Hull, Bradford, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Wolverhampton rank in the most deprived 30 across the country under the 2025 deprivation indices,” noted the study.
“Although only a single urban area is among the top 10 for deprived neighbourhoods countrywide, urban areas are much more prone to be in the most deprived fifth of England. The data underscores the scale of difficulties confronting municipal officials across key cities in the next twelve months,” the report added.
“Council officials have been explicit about the need for a fair and sustainable funding system that accounts for and responds to the real levels of disadvantage and need,” said Michael Mordey.
“Lacking this, councils will continue to face impossible choices around which vital provisions to allocate spend to, and which to reduce, to the disadvantage of their communities.”
One in five of local authorities have reduced or weakened social care provision in the past 12 months, the survey revealed.
